Below the Mushroom Cloud

In 1957, George Yoshitake was asked by the U.S. Army to stand below a nuclear detonation and take pictures. Standing with 5 other volunteers at the Nevada Test Site, George took pictures as a nuclear missle detonated 10,000 feet over his head. Yoshitake shares his recollections of the day.

"I took a flight out and went to the Nevada test site and when I got there, they told me I’m going to be standing with five guys at ground zero and my job was to take pictures of them. And I said 'what?' And I said 'what type of protective gear will I have?' And they said 'none' and I said 'what?' And so I was surpsied, but I had a baseball cap that I wore that just in case."

"It was very early morning and the sun was up already. It was a very clear day. There was not a cloud in the sky. I remember I could feel the heat and the shockwave a couple of seconds afterwards."

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"I looked up after the blast and I could see the doughnut-shaped fireball up in the sky…the thing went off around 10,000 feet above our heads, so they said. But anyway, we were all safe and I was glad we were all able to survive."